Graham gets challenger in Citadel's first female graduate

Nancy Mace will announce primary challenge on Saturday

Communications consultant Nancy Mace, who has teased conservative political circles for the past few months over whether she would challenge U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in 2014, confirmed today that she will announce a primary challenge to the Republican senator in Goose Creek this Saturday.

In a glowing interview with The Daily Caller, the right-leaning political news website, Mace says she's setting out to change our nation's capital, "The only way to change Washington is to change who we send to Washington."

Mace has been seizing on red meat served up by media-hungry Senator Graham for the past year with a handful of editorials appearing on RedState.com and The Daily Caller in addition to reposting and acknowledging those playing the "will she or won't she?" game on Twitter. A campaign website has been set up at NancyMace.org.

Mace was the first woman to graduate from The Citadel in 1999 and has lived in Atlanta and Charleston in recent years working as the principal for the PR and communications firm The Mace Group. The wife and mother of two has done work in the past for conservatives including state Sen. Tom Davis and the South Carolina Policy Council and was a co-owner of FitsNews.com with Will Folks, but was said to have ended her business relationship with blogger in May. Mace is still listed as the registered agent for FITSNEWS, LLC, according to South Carolina secretary of state filings at the time of publication.

Several others are said to be considering joining the primary challenge, but so far only Upstate lawyer Richard Cash has made it official. State Senator Lee Bright tells The State that he plans on entering the race in the next couple weeks.